Fill In Shadows with a Photo Reflector

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To make outdoor portraits seem more natural, use a photo reflector to illuminate your subjects. It’s usually more natural-looking than fill flash (see story) but the equipment can be a handful on windy days because of the size – you need an inch of reflector for every inch of height or width you want to illuminate. Reflectors are also useful outdoors on overcast days (or indoors in low light) to brighten the subject’s face. In a pinch, a white reflector makes a good backdrop for an eBay photo.

Why You Need a Reflector: The Camera Doesn’t See as Well as Your EyesCameras have less dynamic range than your eyes, meaning one exposure has trouble capturing bright areas in sunlight and darker colors in shade. For portraits outdoors, a photo reflector illuminates the darker on in-shadow part of the image. In the photo at right, the afternoon sun is behind the subject. A three-foot silver reflector was about three feet from the girl’s face and slightly below, angling the sunlight back up.

A photo reflector is a flat piece of reflective fabric with a wire frame that typically folds down to one-third to one-half its open size. The better ones have a fabric wrist grip or handle for holding outdoors. Indoors, you can use a light stand with an extension arm and clamp, an assistant, or for close-ups, it may be possible to hold the reflector in one hand and your camera in the other.

Most reflector kits provide several reflective surfaces including white, silver, and gold. Pick the reflector size – typically 14 inches to 72 inches – to match how much of your subject you want to illuminate (a 36-inch reflector illuminates a person from the head to the waist), and be prepared to hold on tight on windy days. Reflectors may be round, rectangular, or triangular.

Most Useful Reflector Colors: Silver and Gold

The most common colors are, in the order I believe you’ll find them useful:

Silver. A neutral color, with the most light reflected (usually good) and the most contrast. If you’re not sure of what color to use, use silver.

Gold. It warms any scene, mimics a photo taken just before sunset and, some photographers say, especially complements non-white skin tones. This is also called the instant-suntan reflector.

Diffuser. A translucent white reflector (photo right) that passes light with no shadows, typically reducing light by one f/stop (that is, half the original light passes through) or two f/stops (one quarter of the light passes through). Some gauzy diffusers that you can see through (scrims) soften direct sun but you still get shadows.

White. It’s a neutral color, obviously, and can be used up close because it reflects less light. Sometimes a silver reflector reflects too much light (and contrast) onto the subject, and the brightness makes the subject squint. It’s more flattering because the light is softer, too.

Black. Completely blocks the sun and creates shade; it can raise the apparent contrast of some photos. It can also be used as a black background if it’s a larger reflector. Size is important because the falloff is obvious.

Silver-gold. A combination of silver and gold, it provides a bit less warmth or color shift than an all-gold reflector. It undoes the bluish cast of photos taken in deep shade. Sometimes called a sunlight reflector because it warms any image even if it’s reflecting overcast light.

Use a 30-Inch to 36-Inch Reflector for Head and Shoulders Photos

I worked with a couple reflectors recently. I found smaller reflectors 30-36 inches in diameter easier to carry around, to fold up and pack away, and to hold on to on a windy beach. For more light, move in closer and also adjust your aim so the light reflects directly on the subject. For less light, back off, or switch from silver or gold to white. At this size, they’re only for a waist-up photos of one person.

The photo at top above was shot with the silver reflector of a 33-inch Lastolite LR3696 TriGrip triangular reflector kit ($130 street), which has one collapsible frame (grip) with a permanently attached two-stop white diffuser fabric, plus two reversible covers with surfaces described as Gold, Sunfire, Sunlite, Silver, SoftSilver, White (reflective, not a diffuser), and Black. This is an example of a high-end, ought-to-last-a-lifetime reflector. The hand grip is big, solid, and easy to hold, a help when used outside.

Use a 52-Inch to 72-Inch Reflector for Group Shots

A larger Westcott 1037 52-inch six-in-one kit ($135 street) was able to illuminate a person from head to toe with just a little falloff (that you wouldn’t get with a 60- or 72-inch reflector), since reflective illumination is about a one-to-one ratio. If you want to have six-feet of illumination, get a 72-inch reflector. Hold on tight out of doors. Indoors if you don’t have an assistant, put a weight such as a photographer’s sandbag on the lightstand-and-arm that’s holding up the reflector. The Westcott kit includes two frames, with one-stop and two-stop diffusers, and a single four-sided reversible cover in silver, gold, sunlight (gold-silver combo), and white. It all collapses into a round bag about 20 inches wide and 3-4 inches thick.

What If You’ve Just Got $25 to Spend? $10? Got Aluminum Foil? Lastolite and Westcott represent the higher end of the price and quality spectrum. You should expect truer reflections edge to edge, and longer life. For a pro, that makes sense, but also for a photo enthusiast. Buy the right one now and it should last the rest of your life. You may find the collapsible metal frame of a cheaper reflector gives out in a couple years, or the fabric tears. But the low prices can be appealing.

In a pinch, I’ve used a sheet of near-white foam core artist’s mounting board as a reflector and it worked reasonably well. Even a white towel at the beach, held very close to the subject’s face, helps light up shadows a little. Anything is better than nothing if you don’t mind a slight color shift. Do-it-yourselfers can take a piece of cardboard or foam core board (I’d suggest 24-by-36 inches or 36-by-36 minimum), lay down a coat of adhesive spray, and attach aluminum foil as your reflector surface. When you’re done, you’ve got one more thing to store, and if your house or apartment already has a lot of stuff, expect to get grief from your partner or roommate about one more piece of junk lying around.

For commercial reflectors, you can pay less than $25, sometimes a lot less, either by going to a smaller reflector or a less-costly unit. I don’t see much value in a reflector sized less than 30 inches. You can also save by just getting a reflector with two reflecting surfaces: silver and gold. For a 36-inch, silver-and-gold (only) reflector, moderate construction quality, you might pay as little as $15 to $25. eBay currently has smaller (30- to 36-inch) reflectors for as little as $10; Amazon has some as cheap as $20. Note that most of them aren’t branded. At minimum, they’ll work as well as that homemade foil-on-foam-core board, and probably will be price-competitive with buying a sheet of foam board, heavy duty foil, and spray adhesive.

For Hard-Core Photographers, the Big Reflector-Diffuser Frame

If you want a serious photo reflector and diffuser, look to frame-and-panel kit. Snap together aluminum pieces into a rectangular frame, then slip the fabric over the frame or attach it with Velcro or clips. The metal pieces can be rearranged to make a smaller or (with more metal pieces) larger frame. They can be held by hand, attached to lightstands, or held from a distance like a boom mike. Expect to pay several hundred dollars for a kit, $1,000 for a big kit. Generically, they’re called Slim Jims; Westcott calls its version a Scrim Jim. The photos above shows a diffuser called a Sun Swatter, from California Sunbounce, and you can tell from the size and setting that this is a tool for pros or the most enthusiastic amateur.

Block the Sun with a Diffuser or Scrim When you’re shooting out of doors, in addition to using a reflector to soften shadows, you can filter the sun with a translucent diffuser. Usually they’re part of multi-panel reflector kits. The diffusers are described in stops, or camera f/stops. A one-stop diffuser transmits half the light, since each f/stop reduction indicates a 50% reduction in light falling on the subject. A two-stop diffuser transmits a quarter of the light. Some gauzy panels, called scrims, that you can see through cut down the harshness of direct sunlight but don’t eliminate shadows. Scrim may also be used generically for any fabric that diffuses light even if it’s not see-through.

Size matters here because it’s quite obvious which part of the subject is lit by soft light coming through the diffuser and which is lit by direct sunlight. The value of such a big reflector or diffuser is that you’re shading not just the subject but also some of the ground and background near the model. Some photographers may prefer carefully positioned fill-flash instead of reflectors or diffusers.

I’ve also used diffusers successfully to soften the light from an off-camera electronic flash. Put the flash a couple feet behind the diffuser, aimed at the subject, and you get a soft side-light with virtually no shadow unless the background is just a few inches behind the subject. If you’re using multiple flashes and have the ability to do it (that is, if you can make sense of your flash manual), turn down the brightness of the on-camera, undiffused flash to a half or quarter the strength of the diffused flash.

If you’re not sure you need frame-and-panel diffusers and reflectors, you probably don’t. They’re specialized items and for the occasional special photo shoot can be rented from photo supply stories in major cities, or shipped if you live elsewhere.

How to Use a Photo Reflector

Start with a silver reflector. For a head-and-shoulders photo or a couple standing close together, a 30- to 36-inch reflector works fine. Start with the reflector as far away as the reflector’s size (36-inch reflector, 36 inches away. Hold the reflector at waist level and tilt it up so it reflects skylight or diffused sunlight up and into the subjects’ faces. Even on a cloudy day, you should be able to see the added illumination on the face. Unless you’re looking for special effects, don’t overilluminate the face. What you see as a little extra light on the face, the camera may see as a lot. Back off, take a taste photo, and try again.

If you want a warmer picture, use a gold or gold-and-silver reflector. To soften facial lines, use the white reflector. To eliminate shadows entirely, put a translucent diffuser or black reflector between the sun and the subject. You’ll want the sun in front of or slightly to the side of the subject.

For groups, use a larger reflector, 50 inches to 72 inches. The rule of thumb is that the reflector should be as wide or tall as the size of what you’re photographing.